r/peacecorps

Hey, continuing the tradition of sharing what I'm glad I packed / what I wish I didn't bring. The packing list given to us feels not very helpful, so I've pasted the link to the original post I read before coming, which was super helpful for me! Adding my own few things below as well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/peacecorps/s/CqLsQfhsoZ

Reminders

• Your med kid will have everything in it, pain killers, anti itch cream, bandaids, dramamine, etc. you can request Neutrogena face soap, allergy medicine like Zyrtec, etc. so don't bring anything like that, it's free here!

• You will be walking a lot! So bring good shoes, I had a pair of black Asics that look fine enough to wear to work and it's all I wore to training and work now (tho now they're falling apart)

• TROPICAL CLIMATE - you need a rain jacket, umbrella, and you will be sweaty. There's tons of micro climates within the country too, so bring a light jacket as well as tank tops, shorts for the weekend/personal time.

• Nobody cares about tattoos/jeans except in pre service departure in Miami or whatever that's called, so plan two outfits to cover tattoos and then you're fine. Jeans are not great for the hottest days anyways, I highly recommend some linen pants. Maybe some older people will frown on tattoos, but my principal has many visible and many teachers have a lot of tattoos, two teachers have sleeves at my site.

What I'm glad I brought:

• Sun hat, sunglasses, long sleeve UV sunshirt

• Semi water proof hiking boots (I like hiking but also just for the rainy walks to the school/training they're perfect)

• Shampoo and conditioner in bar form (I'm in a really rural area and we just have to burn our trash, no recycling options in town but this is not everyone's experience)

• Big thin towel that dries quickly

• Several tank tops for sleeping, weekends, days doing household chores

• Linen pants and shirts for work - kept me very cool on the hottest days

• 1 sweater for the rare cold weather (only when I travel to the mountains, tho that's  some people's sites!)

• My Libby app with freshly renewed library cards

• Printed pictures of friends and family for decorating my room

• Drawing supplies (you'll find yourself with sometimes a whole empty rainy day at home so bring some hobbies!)

• 100 pack stickers of my home state, ended up as great bribing material for incentivizing my students complete my survey.

What I wish I left at home

• The amount of work clothes - I brought a lot of business casual and didn't really need that many varieties of work outfits

• Over the ear headphones, it's too sweaty to use them and not safe to block out all sound when walking, running, even doing chores at home in case somevody walks up to my house selling stuff etc. I never use them now, I just use my earbuds.

What I wish I brought

• More shorts - it's true at training, in the office, and work (at my school) shorts are never acceptable, but in the afternoons after work and all weekends it's all I want to wear. I brought two pair and ended up buying more at thrift stores here

• More underwear, sometimes the week is busy and your host family is already doing their laundry and THEN it rains for a week straight and you're out of clean clothes 🙈

• To-go coffee thermos - bought one here eventually

• A bag for work (going to the school) I only had my big overnight backpack so ended up buying several small but super cheap backpacks here, they kept breaking though

• A few school supplies - pencils, markers, sharpies, note cards, etc. Being in YD I needed to prep examples of the activity etc. And the schools often don't have much, and buying them can get expensive (or buying cheap crap that doesn't work after a week), so if you already have sharpies etc them bring them!

• 2 gifts for host families, I forgot to account you get 1 family for training and 1 family for site placement three months later!

That's all! Safe travels to all aspiring trainees and I'm looking forward to meeting you all soon! 😁😁

What’s a standard attrition rate for vols in sub Saharan Africa? Howdy folks, I’m a volunteer in Africa with about 7 months left in service and so far from our cohort we’ve had an attrition rate of over 50%. Wondering how many of you had less than half your original cohort by the time of your cos? Is this standard becuase I don’t remember hearing much about it before joining?

I have been a volunteer for almost 2 years (!) and I am always reading on this reddit about the struggles of PCVs in their communities. Obviously everyones site and country is different but does anyone else not have any problems or complaints about their service?

Personally: I got very lucky, I was placed with a great host family that I have been close with throughout my service. I have never had any serious issues in my community even though I struggled with the language at first. My work has its usual Peace Corps moments of people not showing up or things changing last minute but it’s never bothered me much. I was working a lot before PC and now I have all the time in the world to hangout with friends in site, work, and exercise…..honestly a dream work life balance. I know the motto is “Hardest job you’ll ever love” but this is the easiest job I have ever loved.

This post is not meant to diminish the actual struggles of a PCV (I have my experience in Central America), but I think it is necessary to share positive stories. Does anyone else feel this way?

About a decade ago I completed one year of service and then ETed due to problems back home (dad died, had to deal with a bunch of other issues surrounding that too.) Recently I've been thinking about doing it again sometime in the future and was curious if they would actually consider bringing on a person that ETed, and if they do are they going to ask you to about it during the interview process? Or do they keep records on how or why people left? Any knowledge on this would be great. I've reached out to my local recruiter about this but they have been very slow/non responsive about getting back to me. Thanks!

I am burnt out dude. slowly losing my mind. It has been 8 months total, including PST. dudeee. Dude dude dude dude… DUDE……. Genuinely no one can understand a PCV’s struggles unless you are/were a PCV yourself. DUDE. HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO TAKEEEEE!!!!!

Hello everyone.

I just had my interview for sustainable agriculture in Senegal this morning. I think it went well. However I am now sorta regretting not talking about anything agriculture related. I talked mostly about my experience working with kids and also touched on my work with python/GIS (I’m a geographic information science major with a minor in sustainable development). I’m just worried that they didn’t get a chance to hear about my experiences that would probably be more relevant to the field and I instead focused more on my community experience. Do you think this will hurt my chances?

I am considering joining the peace corps and am coming to you to hear about your experiences. I just want to better understand the full gravity of what I would be signing up for so please let me know your stories and what I should expect.

Thanks!

Use this thread to vent your frustrations. We're all here to lend an ear.

Hi!

I’ve been invited to serve, and would leave in September. I’ve also been offered a promotion at my work and am trying to figure out what I really want to do.

I work in the journalism industry and love it, and I love my coworkers. However, peace corps is something I’ve considered for a while, and never did. I have lived abroad before on my own, and I know it’s hard.

I want to join because I want to live in the host country, I want to learn the language, I want to teach and meet new people. I also want to be part of the peace corps community.

And I want to stay because I like most parts of my jobs and I feel like local journalism is super important, I’ve worked hard to build a community in my town in the U.S.

All that being said, I don’t know what to do or what to feel. Some days I feel like Peace Corps wouldn’t be right, some days I feel like I want to try it anyways.

I am trying to understand if these anxieties and doubts are normal or if they are a sign I shouldn’t go.

What did you feel before leaving or while deciding?

Logistically, emotionally, socially, physically, financially, etc

I just swore in and have been living with my new host family for less than a week. The dad greeted me today by grabbing my face with both hands and kissing me on the forehead.

It freaked me out a bit. I just met this dude. This is not a culture in which men show that kind of affection to women they do not know. Later that night at dinner he kept leaning into me to whisper in my ear stuff about the food and how it was prepared. With his wife sitting right in front of us. She was not reacting to the situation at all.

He never said anything overtly sexual, and today was the first day he started acting like this. I just do not like how he so casually invades my personal space. The house is beautiful. I have my own suite with a flush toilet and a hot shower which is not common in my host country. I do not want to lose my suite!!!!! Plus I get along really well with the mom.

I was contempleting asking her to talk to her husband about boundaries with me. I am 22 and a little intimidated about the thought of telling a man my dad's age to stop crowding me. But I have a feeling that will not be a good thing to do. Not safe.

So on Monday I think my only option is to report it before it gets worse. This really sucks!!!!!!!!

Any insight into how Peace Corps will handle this. Could they speak to the dad and mom about boundaries? Will they take this seriously even if this is the first time he acted like this?

I currently have so much free time while serving. I also feel like after this experience I will not get this much free time ever again, so I’ve been investing in doing all the things I’ve always said I wanted to do/learn. Outside of community integration, studying language, and things that are “peace corps” related, how do/did you spend your time? Anyone learn new skills, invest in hobbies, learn new knowledge, or do any self growth? Not looking for advice, but more just curious how people spend/t their free time.

Until it wasn’t. https://www.peacecorps.gov/what-we-do/our-mission/

Hello everyone! I am a PCV serving as a "Public Health Facilitator" in Western Kenya. With a new cohort arriving later this year and myself reaching 10 months in-country, I thought it would be fun to answer any questions people may have about training, service, daily life, work, or Kenya in general. So feel free to ask me anything!

Hey guys! Basically my first reddit post so holla at ya girl and give me some advice. I'm a senior in college planning on hopefully getting into the peace corps agriculture field in March 27. However, I've been getting more an more anxious about applying as I feel like I haven't accomplished enough yet to put on the resume. For context I have always had a job and worked just about 30 hours a week average along with attending college. I pay my rent, gas, groceries, and anything else I may want or need like clothing. This left little time in between to do unpaid internships or anything other than being in the service industry getting tips. My major is Sustainable Development, with a concentration in agroecology and two minors in sustainable business and sustainable technology. Typing all of this out doesnt make me seem lazy, but when im looking at other students theyre working a farm job or doing a farm internship and its summer break so I have time definitely and im going to be volunteering 6 hours a week but my application is due in August and im afraid I wont get accepted. Its to Jamaica. I have tons of classes that associate directly to peace corps but I still feel like I wont be ready or they wont even take me. Peace corps is my dream and has been since freshman year so I really need some advice.

Hello everyone!

I am an incoming PC CED Volunteer in Costa Rica. I was wondering what organizations and programs are existing in urban regions, considering I am serving with my partner. Are there any major themes that the urban areas focus on? What are the major work differences between working in urban vs rural areas?

We were told by PC staff that we would most likely be placed in an urban area for enough work for the two of us.

Thank you so much!

So I’m looking at the available openings on PeaceCorps website and I notice that some of the English teaching positions have a requirement for Spanish while others don’t, for example the Costa Rica position has a language requirement but the DR one doesn’t.

Does anyone know why this is, is there some significant difference in the training or service that would make this the case?

Hi everyone, so this week I had a regularly scheduled dermatology appointment for some warts I have, which is the final thing I need to submit for medical clearance, and I also got a skin check done as my father recently had a melanoma scare on his skin. My dermatologist said that I need to have a skin check every year just for safety reasons.

I am terrified of submitting this information to the peace corps as I would be absolutely crushed if I don't get medically cleared for Paraguay, and if I can't serve in the Peace Corps all together because of this new family history of melanoma and for me needing a skin check every year.

Am I screwed? Or is this a pretty common medical need for volunteers to have, and I shouldn't have anxiety about submitting this for medical clearance?

In my country I have gone to the doctor. I usually go outside the country because the care is better. You think there would be a problem with going back for Clarence to my family doctor in the states and showing my records that are more thorough in examination? I am way healthier. Honestly it’s probably been like 6-7 years since I had a health check up in my area 😂😂

I’m looking at the options for countries in Latin America but like the title says I’m a vegetarian. I’m wondering what people’s experiences or just knowledge of the different countries that are currently available are in terms of how easy or hard this might be.

I’d imagine it’s not too too hard in any of them as staples like rice beans and fruit will be readily available, but please correct me if I’m wrong!